Go local for IT: Senators

If you are thinking of migrating to the US, and you haven't found an employer yet, think again. Companies were urged to hire local talents. While some companies are reluctant to abide by the guideline passed down by lawmakers, who knows how stringent the selection process can become, not to mention discrimination?

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US H-1B visa cap
US lawmakers want companies to hire fewer foreigners to weather recession

WASHINGTON — The United States began taking visa applications on Wednesday for highly skilled foreigners, with lawmakers pressing to close the door to some of the long-coveted workers amid the recession.

Companies can seek up to 85,000 so-called H-1B visas for the fiscal year starting in October for IT and other specialized workers.

Asians usually get some three-quarters of the visas, with Indians alone taking one-quarter.

Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat close to President Barack Obama, and Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, said companies should need fewer visas this year as the United States suffers its worst economic crisis in decades.

“The H-1B visa was intended to be used only as a temporary measure when qualified Americans weren’t available for highly specialised jobs,” the senators said in a joint statement.

“With unemployment at rates higher than we’ve seen in decades, there is no shortage of people looking for work, so companies should need (fewer) H-1B visas than last year,” they added.

The United States has already barred companies receiving federal bailout funds from hiring any H-1B workers.

The H-1B visa cap is already far down from the nearly 200,000 a year issued during the tech boom a decade ago, when foreigners helped build some of Silicon Valley’s Internet giants.

Nafsa, the US association promoting international education, said the United States would shoot itself in the foot by turning its back on the best and the brightest.

“To turn away individuals with skills that we need, who want to live and work in America, under the illusion that by doing so we are protecting our economy, is to deny ourselves a resource that we need to help pull us out of the recession,” it said in a statement.

Mr Robert Hoffman, a vice-president at software giant Oracle and co-chair of Compete America, a coalition of tech companies lobbying to hire foreigners, said the 85,000 H-1B workers would make up only 0.07 per cent of the US labour force.

“It’s an easy political target,” he said.

- AFP


From TODAY, World
Friday, 03-April-2009